Providing an interactive presentation environment

Abstract

An interactive presentation environment for eMeetings or the like that provides participants with more control over what they see and hear. One embodiment of the interactive presentation environment comprises a meeting recorder adapted to create a recording of a live meeting and a navigation control for selecting a portion of the recording to view during the live meeting. Some embodiment may further comprise a timeline control containing a first graphical indicator associated with a live position and a second graphical indicator associated with a current position, a bookmark control adapted to mark a portion of the recording for archiving, and a display operatively connected to the meeting recorder and the navigation control.

We claim: 
     
       1. An interactive presentation environment, comprising:
 a meeting recorder adapted to create a recording of a live meeting, said live meeting having at least an audio content and a visual content, said visual content comprising a plurality of images which change during said live meeting, each of said plurality of images of said visual content being recorded by said meeting recorder at a respective time of presentation during said live meeting; 
 an interactive display for displaying said visual content of said live meeting; and 
 a navigation control coupled to said interactive display for interactively selecting, for presentation to a user on said interactive display during the live meeting, content of said live meeting from among a plurality of selections supported by said navigation control, said plurality of selections including: (a) a currently presented portion of said live meeting including a currently presented image; and (b) any arbitrary portion of said live meeting previously recorded by said meeting recorder, said portion including a previously recorded image different from said currently presented image 
 wherein, responsive to said user selecting (a) with said navigation control, said currently presented portion of said live meeting is presented to said user on said interactive display during said live meeting; and 
 wherein, responsive to said user selecting (b) with said navigation control, the previously recorded image which the user selects with said navigation control is presented to said user on said interactive display during said live meeting. 
 
     
     
       2. The interactive presentation environment of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a timeline control containing a first graphical indicator associated with a live position and a second graphical indicator associated with a current position. 
 
     
     
       3. The interactive presentation environment of  claim 2 , further comprising a bookmark control adapted to mark a portion of the recording for archiving. 
     
     
       4. The interactive presentation environment of  claim 1 , further comprising a relative volume control adapted for adjusting a relative volumes of the live meeting and the recorded meeting. 
     
     
       5. The interactive presentation environment of  claim 1 , wherein the meeting recorder comprises a general purpose computing device. 
     
     
       6. A computer program product, comprising:
 (a) a program configured to perform a method of presenting an electronic meeting, comprising:
 receiving a live meeting signal of said electronic meeting, said live meeting signal having at least an audio content; 
 recording the live meeting signal during said electronic meeting; and 
 presenting a navigation control to a user during said electronic meeting that allows a user to select a previously recorded portion of the recorded live meeting signal, the selection being made by said user during said live meeting using said navigation control, for audio presentation to said user during the live meeting simultaneously with audio presentation to said user of audio content of a currently received live meeting signal of said electronic meeting; and 
 
 (b) a tangible computer-readable storage media bearing the program. 
 
     
     
       7. The computer program product of  claim 6 , wherein the program comprises an application server. 
     
     
       8. The computer program product of  claim 6 , wherein the tangible computer-readable media is chosen from the group consisting of: information permanently stored on non-writable storage media; and alterable information stored on writable storage media. 
     
     
       9. The computer program product of  claim 6 , wherein said program is configured to further perform: presenting an audio control that allows said user to adjust the relative volumes of audio content of the currently received live meeting signal and audio content of the selected previously recorded portion of the recorded live meeting signal. 
     
     
       10. The computer program product of  claim 6 , wherein audio content is presented using a plurality of speakers, wherein at least one parameter of the speaker output is altered between audio content from said selected previously recorded portion of the recorded live meeting signal and audio content from the currently received live meeting signal to make the audio contents appear to originate from different locations.